Managing Power-Sharing: Dealing with Challenges in Consociational Political Settlements

On 13 February 2014, a panel discussion on “Managing Power-Sharing: Dealing with Challenges in Consociational Political Settlements” will be held in New York. This event is being organized by the Center for Constitutional Transitions at New York University School of Law (NYU Law), the United Nations Department of Political Affairs (UN DPA), the United Nations University and the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations.

Consociations are power-sharing arrangements increasingly used to manage ethno-nationalist, ethno-linguistic, and ethno-religious conflicts in peace agreements and constitutions. Longer-standing consociational arrangements in countries such as Belgium and Lebanon have been followed by more recent examples such as Bosnia, Northern Ireland and Burundi. Such power-sharing arrangements inevitably involve the management of political, legal and social tensions.

Some constitutions organized on consociational lines have recently been faced with new sets of challenges, including those relating to patronage politics and others based on human rights norms relating to non-discrimination. As the international community moves towards a more comprehensive, strategic approach to support for constitution building in situations of ethnic conflict, academics and practitioners have begun exploring how these challenges can be addressed.

This discussion will explore some of these lessons, and consider what they may mean for practice in this area. Speakers will include:

H.E. Guillermo E. Rishchynski, Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations

George Anderson, Visiting Fellow, Center for Constitutional Transitions at NYU Law